Harvards in Africa

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TheGreenGoblin
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Harvards in Africa

#1 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Wed Jun 03, 2020 11:48 am

Farewell SAAF Harvards

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It reads like a joke and to an extent it was. In 1995 a South African, an Australian and an Englishman all with a similar passion for aviation and flying, pooled their resources and flew out to South Africa twice, initially to Waterkloof SAAF base and then, later, to the Central Flying School of the SAAF in Langebaan, to bid on three Harvard/T-6's, among others, being disposed of by the school. The process involved sealed $ bids and we (yes I was the South African) came within an ace of owing two of the preferred aircraft, being $1600.00 short of the winning bid on one and only $1500 short on the other one (clearly not having put enough into the requisite bribe envelope). We were awarded the third but never took beneficial ownership as we were to be gazumped through a piece of post hoc chicanery by an American collector (who shall remain nameless) with a deeper pockets than we had. Nonetheless we enjoyed our stays, had an enormously good, and very long, holiday on the the second trip, committed aviation and sundry other sins and met a number of interesting African, and other characters, in the bars around Langebaan and elsewhere, one of whom had been a Portuguese air force pilot and then African mercenary... this wonderful site reminded me of the adventure and of many bibulous evenings with said rogue, who shall also remain nameless...

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Portuguese Harvards in Combat....
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Re: Harvards in Africa

#2 Post by ian16th » Wed Jun 03, 2020 12:38 pm

TGG Do you know any of the guys involved in the 'Sky Typing' project?
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Re: Harvards in Africa

#3 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Wed Jun 03, 2020 1:19 pm

I knew that the US Sky Typing company had franchised their system to an SA team but don't believe I know any of them.

The UK/CAA government recently relaxed regs. on the same here but the economics, weather etc. have cast a pall on the industry and nobody is in the game here yet to my knowledge!


https://www.gov.uk/government/consultat ... -responses


Do you remember these guys?





https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_ ... batic_Team
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Re: Harvards in Africa

#4 Post by G-CPTN » Wed Jun 03, 2020 4:26 pm

Waterskiing with a small aircraft - what is the risk of 'immersion' causing a somersault?

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Re: Harvards in Africa

#5 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Wed Jun 03, 2020 5:32 pm

G-CPTN wrote:
Wed Jun 03, 2020 4:26 pm
Waterskiing with a small aircraft - what is the risk of 'immersion' causing a somersault?
Quite high I imagine although I don't believe the outfit has ever got their feet wet.

The chap in that video has been flying the Harvard for a long time (along with a lot else) and submitted the following to the site I initially linked to in the first post. His son now flies in the display team. Their team purchased all their original aircraft at the same auction I mentioned in the first post.

https://www.t6harvard.com/pilot-stories ... lly-levin/
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Re: Harvards in Africa

#6 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Wed Jun 03, 2020 10:00 pm

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Wed Jun 03, 2020 11:48 am

came within an ace of owing two of the preferred aircraft, being $1600.00 short of the winning bid on one and only $1500 short on the other one (clearly not having put enough into the requisite bribe envelope). We were awarded the third but never took beneficial ownership as we were to be gazumped through a piece of post hoc chicanery by an American collector (who shall remain nameless) with a deeper pockets than we had. Nonetheless we enjoyed our stays, had an enormously good, and very long, holiday on the the second trip, committed aviation and sundry other sins and met a number of interesting African, and other characters, in the bars around Langebaan and elsewhere, one of whom had been a Portuguese air force pilot and then African mercenary... this wonderful site reminded me of the adventure and of many bibulous evenings with said rogue, who shall also remain nameless...

A truly Freudian slit (oops I meant slip). Of course I meant owning one, but in truth, you always owe a lot if you own a classic old aircraft and they, i.e. the aircraft, eventually come to own you, until your wife divorces you and then, they, i.e. she and her attorney, own the lot! =))
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Re: Harvards in Africa

#7 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun Jun 07, 2020 9:16 pm

More from Africa... =))


The pilot of the lead aircraft, Quentin Mouton, is currently Chief Pilot of Mango Airlines in South Africa. He said the following about these pictures on a South African aviation forum:

We were 590 hr pilots at the time and the whole thing was illegal, stupid and needless to say, dangerous.

The low flying limit was 200ft (or above, not below).

I would have been court-martialled if the SAAF knew. Too late now.

These pictures were taken 2nd October 64. I was the pilot. The pictures are original and not 'touched up'.

The 'Pongos' were on a route march from Langebaan by the sea to Saldanha.

The previous night in the pub one of them had said: "Julle dink julle kan laag vlieg maar julle sal my nooit laat lê nie" ("You think you can fly low, but you'll never make me lie down"). Hullo!!!

I went to look for them on the beach in the morning and was alone for the one picture. I was pulling up to avoid them.

In the afternoon I had a formation with me and you can see the other a/c behind me. (piloted by van Zyl, Kempen and Perold)

A friend by the name of Leon Schnetler (one of the pongos) took the pics.

The guy that said "Jy sal my nie laat lê nie" ("You won't make me lie down") said afterwards that he was saying to himself as I approached: "Ek sal nie lê nie, ek sal nie lê nie" ("I won't lie down, I won't lie down") and when I had passed he found himself flat on the ground.

Memories from the past.

Quentin Mouton (23,000 hrs, everything up to B747-400, presently Chief pilot MANGO Airlines and still actively flying B737-800 at 68)
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Re: Harvards in Africa

#8 Post by llondel » Mon Jun 08, 2020 11:23 pm

There was the reporter on the beach at WSM who didn't lie down until the wing hit his head on a low pass. That's on Youtube.

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Re: Harvards in Africa

#9 Post by larsssnowpharter » Tue Jun 09, 2020 6:56 pm

Bit of thread drift as not about SA or Harvards but is about me embarrassing myself in a T6 many years ago.

It happened like this. I was taking off with fuel selector switched to 'Reserve' as per Pilot's Notes. Climbed to about 5000ft and switched to 'Left Tank'. All good so far. Bimbled around a bit, did some aeros and then the donk stopped.

Kicked myself for having forgotten to switch tanks. SOP is to switch to reserve. This I did fully expecting a restart. Nothing happens. Check other *****, recheck fuel selector (sits on the left hidden between flap and throttle levers a bit). Start selecting field, turn onto a long final and do a final check which includes checking fuel on reserve. The fuel selector was on 'OFF'. Selected 'Reserve' and saved some embarrassing explanations.

I could have sworn I had checked that selector but obviously saw what I was expecting to see. Learned a bit about flying from that!

Love the T6 though especially the way it makes no pretence of being a civilian aircraft.

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Re: Harvards in Africa

#10 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Jun 11, 2020 3:16 am

larsssnowpharter wrote:
Tue Jun 09, 2020 6:56 pm
Bit of thread drift as not about SA or Harvards but is about me embarrassing myself in a T6 many years ago.

It happened like this. I was taking off with fuel selector switched to 'Reserve' as per Pilot's Notes. Climbed to about 5000ft and switched to 'Left Tank'. All good so far. Bimbled around a bit, did some aeros and then the donk stopped.

Kicked myself for having forgotten to switch tanks. SOP is to switch to reserve. This I did fully expecting a restart. Nothing happens. Check other *sh*t*, recheck fuel selector (sits on the left hidden between flap and throttle levers a bit). Start selecting field, turn onto a long final and do a final check which includes checking fuel on reserve. The fuel selector was on 'OFF'. Selected 'Reserve' and saved some embarrassing explanations.

I could have sworn I had checked that selector but obviously saw what I was expecting to see. Learned a bit about flying from that!

Love the T6 though especially the way it makes no pretence of being a civilian aircraft.
The Saffers used the term Harvard generally to cover all the North American built marques as well the Canuck variants, so any T-6 anecdotes are bang on the centre line here. Texans are cowboys, or cigarettes, in SA.

It is amazing what cognitive bias, or specifically, automaticity, can do to ruin one's day.
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Re: Harvards in Africa

#11 Post by ian16th » Thu Jun 11, 2020 11:33 am

Any idea when the last 'new' SAAF Harvard was un-crated?

I heard a very recent date, but cannot confirm it.
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Re: Harvards in Africa

#12 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Jun 11, 2020 12:21 pm

ian16th wrote:
Thu Jun 11, 2020 11:33 am
Any idea when the last 'new' SAAF Harvard was un-crated?

I heard a very recent date, but cannot confirm it.
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From: Upward and Onward: Life of Air Vice-Marshal John Howe CB, CBE, AFC - Bob Cossey
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Re: Harvards in Africa

#13 Post by ian16th » Thu Jun 11, 2020 12:39 pm

Thanks for that.
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Re: Harvards in Africa

#14 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Jun 11, 2020 2:55 pm

ian16th wrote:
Thu Jun 11, 2020 12:39 pm
Thanks for that.
It is a pleasure ian16th and also gives me the opportunity to rant about the shame of the fact that RAF Air Vice-Marshal John Howe ended up leaving his homeland South Africa and moving to England to fly for the RAF, or the FAA like so many others, such as Dick Lord, did. The verkrampte befokde National Party also wrote Afrikaans speaking war heroes like Sailor Malan out of history because they did not support their rabid, anti English among many other quirks, ideologies.


With respect to John Howe...
When the political situation in South Africa became more difficult and extreme in 1954 he decided to resign from the SAAF and moved to England where he transferred to the Royal Air Force in the rank of flying officer (Service No. 503984) to fly early types of jet fighters. He became a Qualified Flying Instructor (QFI) on Vampires, later converting to the Hawker Hunter, and serving the front line North Sea interceptors of No. 222 Squadron RAF at RAF Leuchars in October 1957 as a flight commander on promotion to flight lieutenant.
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Re: Harvards in Africa

#15 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun Jun 14, 2020 11:17 am

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Thu Jun 11, 2020 2:55 pm

The verkrampte befokde National Party also wrote Afrikaans speaking war heroes like Sailor Malan out of history because they did not support their rabid, anti English among many other quirks, ideologies.


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Re: Harvards in Africa

#16 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun Jun 14, 2020 11:57 am

John Howe, having finished a torrid tour flying the Mustang P51 in Korea with the Flying Cheetahs volunteered for another one but was refused. Insistent on further action he ended getting a berth as a forward air controller with the Americans...
He was posted to the 19th Infantry Regiment of the 24th Infantry Division, IX Corps, US Army who were operating in central Korea. Before reporting to them he went to the 6150th Tactical Control Squadron near Seoul. The 6150th was the non-flying element of the 6147th Tactical Control Group, which handled all aspects of ground support, including the Tactical Air Control Parties, three-man teams with radio-equipped jeeps that co-ordinated the airborne Mosquitoes. Peter Smith in North American T6 tells us: Their job was to go out and send back radio reports on enemy positions and likely targets. The team leader was always a combat-experienced Mosquito pilot.
Howe switched to using the Harvard/T-6 to survey the terrain the troops were going to be fighting on. He was an immediate success, and became a superb controller where his aerial experience worked well on the ground and subsequently he was decorated by the Americans, being recommended for the Bronze Star and was awarded the American DFC.
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Re: Harvards in Africa

#17 Post by OFSO » Mon Jun 15, 2020 2:50 pm

F-24 showing a Spitfire off Biggin Hill.

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Re: Harvards in Africa

#18 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Jun 15, 2020 2:58 pm

OFSO wrote:
Mon Jun 15, 2020 2:50 pm
F-24 showing a Spitfire off Biggin Hill.

Flown by the brother of the very efficient secretary, now on maternity leave having had a child during lock down, at the heli outfit at Headcorn....

An excellent excuse to drift this thread...

Superb documentary...

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Sailor Malan History 1

#19 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Apr 05, 2021 3:50 pm

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Thu Jun 11, 2020 2:55 pm

The verkrampte befokde National Party also wrote Afrikaans speaking war heroes like Sailor Malan out of history because they did not support their rabid, anti English among many other quirks, ideologies.
More on Malan's history...
Another inconvenient truth to the current political narrative of the “struggle”, the first mass anti-Apartheid protests were led by this highly decorated Afrikaner war hero - Adolph “Sailor” Malan - and the mass protesters were not the ANC and its supporters, this very first mass mobilisation was made up of “White” war veterans – read on for some fascinating “hidden” South African history.

Many people may know of the South African “Battle of Britain” Ace - Adolph “Sailor” Malan DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar - he is one of the most highly regarded fighter pilots of the war, one of the best fighter pilots South Africa has ever produced and he stands as one of the “few” which turned back Nazi Germany from complete European dominance in the Battle of Britain – his rules of aerial combat helped keep Britain in the war, and as a result he, and a handful of others, changed the course of history. But not many people are aware of Sailor Malan as a political fighter, anti-apartheid campaigner and champion for racial equality.

“Sailor” Malan can be counted as one of the very first anti-apartheid “struggle” heroes. The organisation he formed “The Torch Commando” was the first real anti-apartheid mass protest movement - and it was made up primarily of “white” South African ex-servicemen. Yet today that is conveniently forgotten in South Africa as it does not fit the current political rhetoric or agenda.

Born in Wellington, Cape Province, in 1910 Malan joined the Union Castle Line of the Mercantile Marine at the age of 15, from which service he derived his nickname “Sailor”.

He foresaw the onset of war with Nazi Germany, promptly went off to Britain and learned to fly at a flying school near Bristol, England where he received his pilot's wings. In 1936, he was posted to No. 74 (Fighter) Squadron (known as the “Tiger Squadron”). It was his first and only squadron, and he is regarded as the squadron's most famous fighter pilot of all time. In total Malan destroyed 27 Nazi German Luftwaffe planes and damaged or shared another 26 all the while flying the iconic Spitfire.

After the Second World War, Sailor Malan left the Royal Air Force and returned to South Africa in 1946. He was surprised by the unexpected win of the National Party over the United Party in the General Election of 1948 on their proposal of “Apartheid” as this was in direct opposition to the freedom values he and all the South African veterans in World War 2 had been fighting for.

What he and other returning World War 2 servicemen saw instead was far right pro Nazi Germany South African reactionaries elected into office. By the early 1950’s the South African National Party government was littered with men, who, prior to the war where strongly sympathetic to the Nazi cause and had actually declared themselves as full blown National Socialists during the war as members of organisations like the Ossewabrandwag, the SANP Greyshirts and the Nazi expansionist “New Order”: Oswald Pirow, B.J. Vorster, Hendrik van den Bergh, Johannes von Moltke, P.O. Sauer, F. Erasmus , C.R. Swart, P.W. Botha and Louis Weichardt to name a few, and there is no doubt that their brand of politics was influencing government policy.

This was the very philosophy the retuning South African servicemen and women had been fighting against, the “war for freedom” against the anti-Judea/Christian “crooked cross” (swastika) philosophy and its false messiah as Smuts had called Germany’s National Socialism doctrine and Adolph Hitler. Some of these Aftkaaner Nationalists had been detained during the second World war as “terrorists,” mainly for acts of sabotage against the South African Union in support of Nazi Germany - Hendrik van den Bergh, Johannes von Moltke, Louis Weichardt and B.J. Vorster (a future State President) to name a couple, and now they where in office running the country as members of the National Party and governing elite.

In the 1951 in reaction to this paradym shift in South African politics to the very men and political philosophy the servicemen went to war against, Sailor Malan formed a protest group of ex-servicemen called the “ Torch Commando” (The Torch). In effect it became an anti-apartheid mass movement and Sailor Malan took the position of National President.

The Torch’s first activity was to fight the National Party’s plans to remove “Cape coloured” voters from the common roll which where been rolled out by the National Party two years into office in 1950. The Cape coloured franchise was protected in the Union Act of 1910 by an entrenched clause stating there could be no change without a two-thirds majority of both houses of Parliament sitting together. The Nationalist government, with unparalleled cynicism, passed the High Court of Parliament Act, effectively removing the autonomy of the judiciary, packing the Senate with National Party sympathisers and thus disenfranchising the coloureds. This was the first move by the National Party to secure a “whites only” voting franchise for South Africa (reinforcing and in fact embedding them in power).

The plight of the Cape Coloured voters was especially close to most White ex-servicemen as during WW1 and WW2, the Cape Coloureds had fought alongside their White counterparts as fully armed combatants. In effect forging that strong bond of brothers in arms (which so often transcends racial barriers).

The Torch Commando strategy was to bring the considerable mass of “moderate’ South African war veterans from apolitical organisations such as the Memorable Order of Tin Hats (MOTH) and South African Legion (BESL) into allegiance with more “leftist” veterans from an organisation called the Springbok Legion - of which Joe Slovo, who himself was also a South African Army World War 2 veteran and was a key leader, his organization – The Springbok Legion, led by a group of white war veterans who embraced Communism was already very actively campaigning against Apartheid legislation and highly politically motivated.

The commando's main activities were torchlight marches, from which they took their name. The largest march attracted 75 000 protesters. This ground swell of mass support attracted the United Party to form a loose allegiance with The Torch Commando in the hope of attracting voters to its campaign to oust the National Party in the 1953 General Election (The United Party was now run by J.G.N. Strauss after Jan Smut’s death and was seeking to take back the narrow margins that brought the National Party into power in 1948).

In a speech at a massive Torch Commando rally outside City Hall in Johannesburg, “Sailor" Malan made reference to the ideals for which the Second World War was fought:
"The strength of this gathering is evidence that the men and women who fought in the war for freedom still cherish what they fought for. We are determined not to be denied the fruits of that victory."

The Torch Commando fought the anti apartheid legislation battle for more than five years. At its height The Torch had 250 000 members, making it one of the largest protest movements in South African history at that time.

DF Malan’s government was so alarmed by the number of judges, public servants and military officers joining The Torch that those within the public service or military were prohibited from enlisting, lest they loose their jobs – this pressure quickly led to the erosion of the organisation’s “moderate” members, many of whom still had association to the armed forces, with reputations and livelihoods to keep.

The “leftist” members of The Torch where eroded by anti-communist legislation implemented by the National Party, which effectively ended the Springbok Legion forcing its members underground (many of it’s firebrand communist leaders, including Joe Slovo, went on to join the ANC’s MK armed wing and lend it their military expertise instead).

In essence, the newly governing National Party at that time could not afford to have the white voter base split over its narrow hold on power and the idea that the country’s armed forces community was standing in direct opposition to their policies of Apartheid posed a real and significant threat – bearing in mind one in four white males in South Africa (English and Afrikaans) had volunteered to go to war and support Smuts – this made up a very significant portion of the voting public, notwithstanding the fact that there all now very battle hardened with extensive military training, should they decide to overthrow the government by force of arms.

There has also been some speculation that the Torch Commando untimely failed because it could distinguish the difference of being a mass Anti Apartheid protest movement or a political arm of the United Party. One political cartoon of the time lampoons The Torch Commando as a hindrance to the United Party. Sailor Malan’s political career was effectively ended and the “Torch” effectively suppressed by the National Party, so he returned to his hometown of Kimberly and joined his local MOTH “Shellhole” (Memorable Order of Tin Hats – one of the apolitical veteran associations from which the Torch had drawn its supporters).
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Sailor Malan History 2

#20 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Mon Apr 05, 2021 3:52 pm

Sadly, Sailor Malan succumbed on 17th September 1963 aged 53 to Parkinson’s Disease about which little was known at the time. Some research now supports the notion that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can bring on an early onset of Parkinson’s Disease, and it is now thought that Sailor Malan’s high exposure to combat stress may have played a part in his death at such a relatively young age. Although he fought in the blue sky over England in the most epic aerial battle to change the course of history, one of the “few” to which Churchill recorded that the free world owes a massive debt of gratitude to, he lies today under an African sun in Kimberley - a true hero and son of South Africa.

It is to the embarrassment now as to his treatment as a South African WW2 military hero that all enlisted South African military personnel who attended his funeral where instructed not to wear their uniforms by the newly formatted SADF. The government did not want a Afrikaaner, as Malan was, idealised as a military hero in death in the fear that he would become a role model to future Afrikaaner youth.

The “official” obituary issued for Sailor Malan published in all national newspapers made no mention of his role as National President of The Torch Commando or referenced his political career. The idea was that The Torch Commando would die with Sailor Malan.

All requests to give him a full military funeral where turned down and even the South African Air Force were instructed not to give him any tribute. Ironically this action now stands as testimony to just how fearful the government had become of him as a political fighter.

A lot can be said of Sailor Malan as a brilliant fighter pilot, even more can be said of political affiliation to what was right and what was wrong. He had no problem taking on the German Luftwaffe in the greatest air battle in history, and he certainly had no problem taking on the entire Nationalist regime of Apartheid South Africa – he was a man who, more than any other, could quote the motto of the Royal Air Force’s 74 Squadron which he eventually commanded, and say in all truth:

“I fear no man”

The campaign to purge the national consciousness of The Torch Commando, The Springbok Legion and Sailor Malan was highly effective as by the 1970’s and 1980’s the emergent generation of White South Africans had never heard of them (especially in the Afrikaans community), and even more so to the Black political consciousness who knew even less about these early “white” mass protests against Apartheid.

This “scrubbing” of history by the National Party in aid of their political narrative strangely also aids the ANC’s current political narrative that it is the organisation which started mass protests against Apartheid with the onset of the “Defiance Campaign” on the 6th of April 1952 led primarily by Black South Africans. Whereas the truth of that matter is that the first formalised mass protests in their tens of thousands against Apartheid where in fact led by White South Africans and more to the point mainly white military veterans starting a year earlier in 1951. Another inconvenient truth - luckily history has a way of re-emerging with facts.

Authors note: the purpose of his article is not to get embroiled in National Party or ANC politics, the purpose is also not to drag apolitical organisations like the MOTH or the SA Legion into political debate – the purpose is to set the historical record straight and highlight the veterans role in it, far too much is wrong in the way South African statute force military veterans (then and now) are treated or perceived – the facts and “truth” can yet yield some surprises.
Written by Peter Dickens
References: South African History On-Line (SAHO), South African History Association, Wikipedia ,Neil Roos: Ordinary Springboks: White Servicemen and Social Justice in South Africa, 1939-1961.
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